Build the capital
that matters most.
Dr. Chad and Wendy Norris work with leaders to form the capital that matters most: the person they are becoming.
Because long before you build a business, grow wealth, or lead well, you have to build the person carrying it all.
What is First Capital?
Five capitals. One comes first.
Money can build a business. It doesn’t build a life. Every leader is building five kinds of capital, and the first one carries the rest.
-
01 / First Capital
Formation
Who am I becoming?
Your character, identity, habits, values and inner life. The character, clarity and peace that let you carry real weight without losing yourself in it.
- 02
Relational
Who am I becoming with?
Your family, friends, community and the quality of your relationships.
- 03
Physical
Do I have the capacity for the life I’m building?
Your body, energy, sleep, strength, nutrition and overall health.
- 04
Intellectual
Am I continuing to learn and grow?
Your mind, knowledge, curiosity, wisdom and mental models.
- 05
Financial
What am I building, stewarding and deploying?
Your money, business, assets, generosity, freedom and legacy.
Who We Work With
Two pathways.One purpose.
First Capital works with leaders at different stages of life and leadership, but the work always begins in the same place:
Build the person before you build the life.
Executive Coaching
Build the person who’s building everything else.
Formation coaching with Chad and Wendy for founders, CEOs, owners, and organizational leaders who are successful on the outside and know there is more available on the inside.
- One-on-one with Chad or Wendy
- The leader, the leadership team, and the organization
- Customized formation plans and First Capital assessments
- The Charleston Intensive: a private week with Chad & Wendy
Apprentice Academy
Learn how to live before you learn how to lead.
A one-year formation experience for emerging young leaders with significant potential, preparing to build businesses, lead organizations, raise families, and carry meaningful influence.
- Led by father and son, Chad & Sam Norris
- Kingdom Apprenticeship: learning to live the way Jesus lived
- A Charleston retreat, plus trips to Canada and Africa
- A track designed for the college-aged years
Meet the leaders of First Capital
Dr. Chad Norris
Wendy Norris
For more than twenty-five years, we’ve walked alongside leaders, families, and organizations through seasons of growth, transition, loss, and renewal.
For much of that time, we believed leadership was about producing more, carrying more, achieving more. From the outside, it looked successful. Then life unraveled, and in the quiet that followed, we were forced to confront a question every leader eventually faces: what happens when a leader’s Formation Capital is running low?
What we discovered changed the way we think about leadership. The greatest asset a leader possesses isn’t influence. It isn’t strategy. It isn’t intelligence. It isn’t Financial Capital. It’s who they’re becoming underneath it all. First Capital was born from that discovery.
Our passion is simple: helping people build lives worth leading. That’s the work we now pour ourselves into through First Capital.
We’ve watched enough leaders finish poorly to know that strategy alone was never going to be the thing that carried them home.
— Chad Norris
The First Capital Pathway
A repeatable process for facing reality, recovering peace, building what matters and releasing what you cannot control. You return to it in every season.
The problemDisconnection The missionReconnection The methodRest The outcomePeace
The architecture of First Capital
The steps of the First Capital Pathway are how we reconnect.
Rest is the posture and the method. Peace is the outcome. Everything else we do hangs on that spine.
A methodology.Not just a conversation.
- 01
The Five Capitals
The framework. Formation first, then relational, physical, intellectual and financial.
- 02
The First Capital Pathway
The process. Awakening, truth, quiet, rhythm and release, repeated in every season.
- 03
The 66-Day Activation Manual
The daily practice. A 20-minute morning practice that takes leaders through 66 consecutive days of intentional formation.
First Capital 66-Day Believe + Decree Activation Manual · 20 minutes each morning
Coming Soon · A new book from Dr. Chad Norris
Reconnecting Disconnection
The Four-Step Path Back to Peace
Be the First to Know“This book is not an argument against ambition. I want you to build, lead, create, make money, take care of your body, love your family, and use every gift you have been given. I simply want the person doing all of that building to become strong enough, connected enough, and peaceful enough to carry it.”
— Chad Norris, A Note Before We Begin
The Canada Leadership Expedition
Where the noise finally stops.
An invitation into the Canadian wilderness with Dr. Chad Norris and the Canada team. Canoes, open water, long conversations and enough quiet to hear yourself think again.
Learn More About the Canada Trip
“Work harder on yourself than you do on your job.”
